Metal Gear Solid: The More Things Change
by The Double C
Summary: A new Dead Cell has surfaced, Raiden has gone insane, and now Snake is now the target of the Patriots.


Metal Gear Solid  
  
The More Things Change  
  
by The Double C  
  
Chapter I  
  
The Death of Raiden  
  
December 19th  
  
One year after the Big Shell  
  
9:46pm  
  
It was a cold December night in Washington; and as the snow set on the ground, a man by the name of Jonathan Graves was being escorted home inside black armored BMW. He sits in the middle of back seat, the windows were tinted as not to show him, or the security personel that accompanies him. To his right; a man in a black suit and tie, with dark sunglasses. Likewise to the left. Both with suitcases, and both with submachine guns. The driver of the car wore a long blank raincoat with the collar turned-up, and hat. His constant chain-smoking kept bothering Graves, but he was too nervous to speak. The passenger seat remained empty. One of the men in black broke the silence that Graves was clinging to after raising his suitcase to his lap. "Mr. Graves," said the agent to the left, "we were wanting to discuss something of a great importance with you. I'm sure you are familiar with the Metal Gear program."  
  
Graves, a 58 year-old pear-shapped fellow, simply said "I have... and I'm not interested..."  
  
The agent responded "But, Mr. Graves... the others members at the committee are all interested at what we have discovered! We have to at least mention what we have discovered about the project! If we don't..."  
  
Graves shot back "If we don't, we can maybe keep our lives! You know the history behind it! Outer Haven! Shadow Moses! Manhattan! The Metal Gear project is too connected with that whole thing FOXHOUND did during the 70's! The truth is, Metal Gear doesn't mean success, it means death! Death of everyone involved, and more! And I don't know about you, but I don't want to die like Sears!"  
  
The agent laughed off Graves's tirade "Mr. Graves, don't worry so much. Sears was traitor, who was put down like the dog he was. We had an agent in there who got out virtually unscathed. In fact, he also survived Shadow Moses! Metal Gear does not mean death to all! I understand your reasons for concern, but let's be reasonable! You cannot die just from saying the words 'Metal Gear!'"  
  
With the words just barely out of the agents mouth, a bullet rips through his left-eye. The cardoor window shadders, as does the lens of the pair of dark sunglasses. Pieces of shaddered sunglasses, and eye fly onto Graves in a midst of spraying blood. A horrified Graves begins screaming "I though you said this was bullet-proof!!! I though-you said this was bullet-proof!!!"  
  
The Agent to his right yelled back "I though it was!!!" He cocked his SMG. "Stop the goddamn car!!!"  
  
The driver had began to swerve after the shot. The area was wooded, so he desperately tried to avoid crashing into anything. He rammed the brakes as hard as he could. Before the vehicle came to a complete stop, the agent leaped out and began shooting at the are where he believed the sniper was. He stopped to look around. It he couldn't see any trace of a person. He did see a few marks in the snow, some that look relatively like footprints. But, other than that, nothing! A loud bang echoed through the woods. The agent felt the bullet enter his body. He was suprised, however, that the bullet had come from behind him. The agent fell to the ground, withering in pain. The bullet had hit close to his spine, piercing the kevlar that protected him. He managed to roll around on the ground, and turn to see his would-be assassin.  
  
The driver pointed his smoking 9mm at the agents face, and then removed his hat. The agent was now horrified at what he saw, but rather honored. But there was one thing that disappointed him. He told the driver "So... it's true... you do have a mullet..."  
  
9:53pm  
  
Graves was in complete and utter shock, he could not move except to quiver with fear. The driver approached his door. He shed his raincoat to reveal his true identity. Graves looked up, "It's... it's... you..." he managed to say, "y-you're... you're Solid Snake..."  
  
It was indeed the legend, himself. The man who had dedicated his life to the destruction of Metal Gear. Graves's eye met the cold, dead gaze Snake had on him. Graves could feel it. Graves kept thinking to himself this is it, you're going to die now! Everything you've ever done in your life now amounts to nothing! Wait, you can still fight it! There's a weapon to your left! Pick it up and use it for Christ's sake!!! No, I'll be dead before I even make the move. Just shuttup, and take the bullet like a man! Snake then spoke to Graves, saying "You must be Graves..." his rough voice seemed to pain Graves more than a bullet would, "...you don't seem like I had imagined you..."  
  
Graves then yelled at Snake, at the top of his lungs "If you're going to kill me, do it already!!!!"  
  
"Kill you?" Snake laughed at him, "Unfortunately, we need you alive..."  
  
"For what!?" demanded Graves.  
  
"For the meeting..." this caught Gaves off gaurd, Snake continued "and, for the record... I'm not really Snake."  
  
The man pulled of a face mask, revealing a face much older than Snake's. He had to be about 50 or so. Graves was still confused, he asked the man "If you're not Snake, who are you?"  
  
The man pulled out a small box, and then removed a piece of what looked to be tape from his neck. He opened the box, and placed the tape-like item in it. He spoke in a much deeper voice "I'm the guy here who's making sure your ass gets home in one piece," he held up the box "and this is how I was able to pull off our man's voice. Vocal chord stimulation tape, who could tell that there are really hundreds to little microchips on such a small piece of tape..."  
  
"Our man?" asked Graves. "Who are you?"  
  
The imposter looked at Graves. "You've got enough brass around here to know that I can't give you my real name." He smiled "Standard practice. That's why one of the most respected men in our circles is a guy named 'Big Boss.' I go by 'Carnivore'. And I represent the newly reformed Dead Cell. And pardon my language, but your security is just downright 'shitty!'"  
  
"You mean this was all... all just a test!?"  
  
"Afraid so, and we didn't even do a computer hacking test!"  
  
"Those two men are dead! I'm covered in a man's brains!"  
  
"That's their fault, and you could have been killed because of it... Snake and his pals are a couple of sick bastards, so we can't spare any expense."   
  
"Who was the Sniper?"  
  
This actually made Carnivore laugh a bit. Graves shot back with an angry "What's so funny!?"  
  
"Don't worry about him," said Carnivore "he's long gone, probably phoning in his reports via CODEC."  
  
Graves insisted "Who was he!? I want to know!"  
  
"Fine," said Carnivore "He's some kid that used to work with Snake personally. Name's Raiden... luckily, the kid's a little screwed-up... bad childhood... so, we could mold his little head into pretty much whatever we wanted. All you have to do is feed him some bullshit about the meaning of life, and how everything is a lie, and he's putty in your hands! I guess during the whole Big Shell fiasco, some of the tech boys had him convinced that his girlfirend was a spy! I'll tell you more on the way home!"  
  
10:17pm  
  
The halls of the Graves family home were quiet. The only sound was of the security personel that stalked the halls, looking for intruders. One of which, Agent Franklin, stops to sit on the living room couch. The living room, like the rest of the house, was actually quite vast. The high number of windows let daylight into the house, which more times than not, had very little in terms of lighting. It wasn't that Graves didn't have lights in the house, it's just he felt more comfortable if he though as little people as possible could see him. This generally annoyed all of the agents hired to protect the home. Franklin always liked to say "It's like he's just waiting for someone to sneak in to kill him! He might as well get a welcome mat that says 'Snakes Welcome!'" Franklin was in his mid-40's, but kept in pretty good shape. His brown hair was going gray, and starting to fall out. He pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and started to puff on it. Another agent, a much younger one, sat next to him. "Your shift over, too?" asked the young man.  
  
"Yeah," said Franklin "I made a quick sweep of the kitchen, as ordered by our 'fearless leader!' Appearently, Snake might be hungry before a long day of assassinating politicians. How 'bout you, Jimmy... what'd you do to make yourself look busy?"  
  
"What did I do?" said Jimmy "I stared at the ceiling for 5 hours! How does Graves expect us to keep busy!?"  
  
"I know..." chuckled Franklin "I'm pretty sure the bathroom is free of terrorist activity! Hey, kid... I wanted to tell you something... I'm sorry..."  
  
"For what?" asked Jimmy. Jimmy then felt two powerful arms reach around his head, and put him in a chokehold. The arms then turned very quickly, snapping his neck, instantly. Blood trickled down the arms, the blood was coming from Jimmy's ears and mouth. Franklin looked up at the man whom posessed the arms that had just taken the life of the young Jimmy. As the arms abruptly let go, and Jimmy's body fell to the ground, Franklin made eye contact with the legend, himself... Solid Snake.  
  
"Poor son-of-a-bitch..." said Franklin.  
  
"I took care of most of the house..." said Snake "You said his kids are still in Manhattan?"  
  
"Right, or at least somewhere in the New York area... Snake, I wanted to say something to you."  
  
"I hope it's not that you're sorry."  
  
"No, I found out something interesting... you remember Dead Cell?"  
  
10:28pm  
  
Snake bursted into Graves's office, SOCOM in hand. The office was much like the rest of the house; large, and very dark. The was an area in the center of the office with a few chairs, and a small coffee table. There were papers on the table, and two words caught the attention of Snake. Metal Gear. He picked up the papers, and read them. According to what was written, the destruction of Arsenal actually inspired the Patriots to become involved. Wisemen Council member Jonathan Graves appearently had become interested, but after learning that every incident in which there was a terrorist attack on Metal Gear was connected, he withdrew his support. Snake was about to contact Otacon via codec when he saw something strange.  
  
He looked at Graves's desk, the first thing he noticed was the ashtray was filled with a large pile of cigarette butts. Behind the desk is what caught him off gaurd. There was Graves, except he was cover in massive puddles of blood, and cut entirely in half. Snake heard a few muffled footsteps behind him, and instinctively turned, and fired 3 bullets into Raiden.  
  
"What in God's name happened to you?" asked Snake, surveying his prey. Raiden was still alive, the bullets hit his stomach. His boyish appearence had now given way to a scared, unshaven face that appears like the owner of which had tried to claw his own eyes out. He still wore his FOXHOUND skull suit, and there was a blade in his right hand.  
  
"God...?" asked Raiden "God hates me... He sent to Hell... He told me that Solidus was my father... He let Solidus make me do horrible things... then He made me kill Solidus... He let them all use me... the Patriots... Dead Cell... Solidus... and... and... you..."  
  
Snake yelled at Raiden "Are you insane!? What have they done to you, Raiden!?"  
  
Raiden stood up, shaking from the bullets "Raiden... no... Raiden doesn't live here anymore... Raiden had an accident... Raiden's sleeping... he won't wake him... he's not breathing... he's not happy... he's scared... he wants to make other people go to sleep, too..."  
  
Snake was actually becoming frightened at Raiden's incoherence "Raiden... Jack... whatever the hell you're calling yourself! What has Dead Cell done to you!?"  
  
Raiden placed his sword in his left hand "They call me... they call me... I am... Shalashaska! Also known... as... Revolver Ocelot!!! This damn right arm!!! Liquid!!!" As he says this; Raiden then takes the blade, lifts up his right arm, stares at it, and slices it off at the elbow. He actually seemed to enjoy the pain, as if it was a massive rush, or as if he was getting high off the bleeding that occured after the cut! Snake was taken back in horror of what Raiden had become. He then lunged at Snake with the blade in his remaining arm. Snake leaps back to avoid the blade, shooting out Raiden's kneecaps has he charged at him. Raiden fell to the ground. Raiden then reached for his own SOCOM.  
  
Snake looked at him and said "Raiden, don't do this! You're stronger than this. You need to fight this! You need to fight your demons!" This didn't stop Raiden from pulling-out his SOCOM "For christ's sake!!! Didn't you learn a goddamn thing from the Big Shell!"  
  
Raiden looked at Snake "I did... I belong in Hell..." he pointed the gun under his chin "Tell Rose I'm sorry... I'm the reason she lost the baby..."  
  
Coming Soon  
  
Chapter II: Death Can Come Twice 


End file.
